eurotechnology.japan.blog

Japan introduced the mobile internet with i-Mode in 1999, while i-Phone and friends are now getting the rest of the world hooked onto the mobile internet.

Games used to be played in game parlors, and some of Japan's game giants were originally and still are game parlor machine makers - a round of Dance-Dance-Revolution anyone? Next came consoles, cassettes and handhelds, taking the growth momentum out of game parlors, and establishing a pattern of growth by generations (today we are in the 7th Generation). Nintendo broke the cozy generation pattern where pixels and MHz increased in predictable ways from Generation to Generation without much other fundamental change. Nintendo took games sideways into the blue oceans of motion sensors and to the silver generation, women and other previously non-gaming majorities, while Xbox and SONY kept slugging out the generation game.

We have been analyzing the Tokyo Game Show for many years - at the 2004 Tokyo Game Show, when SONY gave previews of the PSP - actually, I was personally much more interested in DoCoMo's huge exhibition village setting a stage for about 15 mobile phone gaming partners.

Since i-Mode started mobile phone games in 1999, online and mobile phone games combined have essentially outgrown the video game software sector in 2009, and are certain to grow much more in coming years - the iPhone is not slowing mobile phone based gaming down.... Those who only count video game cassettes and consoles, certainly don't see the rapid mobile and online growth - and complain about shrinking markets.

Is Nintendo now being blind-sided by mobile phones and app-stores?

I don't think so: not blind-sided - but strongly affected. Actually, Nintendo's CEO and DoCoMo's CEO (and Vodafone, Apple, Research in Motion, PALM, and NOKIA's CEOs) tell us they want to make their DSi's / mobile phones central to everybody's lives - with built in cameras, payments, app-stores, navigation. Essentially everyone on planet earth has a mobile phone, or will soon have one, or two. Many of todays phones in people's hands can't yet play games nicely - but DoCoMo's phones do - and iPhones do also. Thats why we already see a lot of mobile gaming in Japan. Imagine the day when most mobile phones on planet earth can play games nicely? Will that day come?

Will people upgrade to a DSi? or to a PSP? or to a better mobile phone? Apple and DoCoMo are both proof that people do pay for downloading games from i-Mode or i-Tunes app-stores - and that's exactly the growth we see in the Figure - you don't see that growth if you count only the number of game cassettes and consoles sold. In any case we may not see an 8th generation console - people might upgrade their phones instead - or use Skype on their PSP.



Detailed analysis in our report on Japan's games sector.

Labels: docomo, games, imode, iphone, mobile games, nintendo

On May 1, 2009, DoCoMo in cooperation with media firm Avex started the mobile TV beeTV which brings 8 channels including a MOOLOG Channel (MOOLOG = MOOvie-bLOG)

beeTV is an indicator how Mobile TV may impact Japan's Media Sector.

Labels: 1seg, avex, beetv, docomo, i-mode, imode, mobile TV, moolog, oneseg

More about Japan's telecom sector: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/jcomm/
More about DoCoMo: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/docomo/
More about KDDI: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/kddi/
More about Softbank: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/softbank/

Labels: docomo, emobil, KDDI, ntt, softbank

We analyze the effect of the crisis on operating margins in three different sectors:
(1) electronics,
(2) mobile communications,
(3) TV media groups.

In sector (1), Nintendo's margins are above 30% and increasing despite the crisis, while traditional electronics companies' margins are evaporating.
(2) for mobile operators DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank margins are 10%-20% and increasing despite the crisis! Could mobile phone usage be crisis resistant?
(3) TV media groups had healthy margins in the 10%-20% range back around 2001- however these margins have been slowly melting away, and TV group margins are heading to cross the zero line into the red zone by 2010-2011. Watch out for a TV media crisis. Read more below.

Consumer electronics sector operating margins:

Nintendo bucks the trend: while Japan's electronics firms' margins are dropping into the red, and have never been much higher than 5% during the last 10 years, Nintendo's operating margins are above 30% and rising despite the crisis.



(Find full data, fully labeled graphics and analysis in our report on Japan's electrical companies)

Mobile phone sector margins are 10% - 20% and rising despite the crisis.

Mobile phones seem to be resistant to the current crisis. DoCoMo's, KDDI's and Softbank's margins are healthy and improving despite the crisis.



(Find full data, fully labeled graphics and analysis in our JCOMM Report)

Margins of TV media groups have been melting away since their peak in 2001.

Back in 2001 Japan's TV media groups used to enjoy healthy margins of up to 20%. Over the last 8 years these healthy margins have molten away, and Japan's large TV media groups are likely to all simultaneously go into the red from 2010 onwards, unless dramatic action is taken. Media groups will need to grow profitable new business, e.g. mobile-TV, and other cross-media growth areas.
Could it be that recent anti-takeover measures have made the large TV media groups complacent?



(Find full data, fully labeled graphics and analysis in our J-MEDIA Report)

Labels: business in japan, docomo, KDDI, media, nintendo, softbank, sony, TV

eMobile is Japan's newest & fastest growing mobile operator, focused on mobile broadband - currently at HSDPA speeds up to 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA/EUL upload speeds up to 1.4 Mbps from Nov 20, 2008 (possibly upgraded to 5.7 Mbps from 2009) covering all major urban areas of Japan. Read an exclusive interview with eMobile's founder and CEO, Dr. Sachio Semmoto below. eMobile's start is a resounding success: subscriber numbers will soon reach 1 million, and in October 2008, eMobile could attract 102,500 new subscribers - three times more than market leader DoCoMo (32,700) and two times more than KDDI (46,700). eMobile's market share is growing. eMobile was founded by Dr. Sachio Semmoto on January 5, 2005, and obtained the 3G spectrum license after a tough "beauty show" from Japan's General Affairs Ministry on November 9, 2005 - almost exactly 3 years ago. At that time the Ministry gave new 3G spectrum licenses to three companies, however eMobile is the only one which actually built a new 3G network - the two other licensees returned their licenses to the Government unused.

Dr. Sachio Semmoto has very kindly agreed to an exclusive interview for our newsletter - read Dr Semmoto's interview below. We are very grateful to Mr Takashi Igarashi of eMobile for his help and assistance in producing the interview. Dr. Semmoto is an extremely successful Japanese multi-entrepreneur. He is one of the co-founders of DDI (today part of KDDI), he founded the ADSL provider eAccess, and in 2005 he founded eMobile. Read Dr Semmoto's interview about eMobile below.

Rapid Growth: In September 2008 eMobile attracted three times more new users than NTT-DoCoMo, and two times more new users than KDDI. eMobile will soon reach 1 million subscribers.




Dr. Sachio Semmoto co-founded DDI (today part of KDDI), he founded ADSL provider eAccess and in 2005 he founded eMobile. He is Chairman and CEO of eMobile. Read Dr. Sachio Semmoto's interview below.




Question: Your company's main product are 7.2 Mbit/sec data connections at about YEN 6000 (US$60, EURO 50)/month without any usage limitation at all - even if your subscribers upload or download enormous amounts of data including Skype and VOIP, or watch or upload movies all-day you do not reduce such users connection speed, and you do not charge extra.
In Europe such totally unlimited data subscriptions do not exist to my knowledge - in addition most European telecom operators exclude VOIP or Skype from mobile data subscriptions - they even talk about "unfair usage" in their subscriber contracts. European telecom managers tell me that unlimited data subscriptions are impossible because of network capacity limitations and high electricity costs etc.
What is it the "secret" that enables eMobile to offer unlimited data plans - without any usage restrictions at all?

Dr. Semmoto: We at EMOBILE have successfully developed and constructed a low cost, but high quality mobile network from scratch, based on leading-edge 3.5G/HSDPA technology base stations. HSDPA technology improves the usability of spectrum and network performance. We also have rich experience in fixed broadband markets like ADSL through eAccess, our group company.
Our "secret" is very simple:
1) high usability of network based on state-of-the-art technology, competitive low cost construction and operations, and
2) operational know-how from fixed broadband market (through eAccess).
Incumbent carriers offer flat-rate data service only because competition forced them to. We believe we have great competitive advantages against incumbent carriers.

Question: What were the main difficulties you had to overcome to start eMobile?

Dr. Semmoto: Financing. We are a completely independent venture company with no financial support from big corporations. We won the confidence of international qualified financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, and Temasek of Singapore, and succeeded to attract funding as large as 3.6 billion US$. This was before our business launch, therefore all we had to show to investors was just our business model and our management team, and our plans for a successful future business.

Question: What was the most surprising experience for you building a new mobile operator from scratch?

Dr. Semmoto:
1) We were very fortunate that we could complete full funding back in 2006 for the following 5 years until 2011, before the current worldwide financial crisis
2) We won a business license and spectrum allocation from the government in 2005 after a tough beauty contest.

Question: I remember the Japanese government wanted to have three new mobile networks and gave three new licenses, and your eMobile was the only company which actually succeeded to build a new network from scratch as desired by the Government (SoftBank acquired Vodafone including Vodafone's license, and returned the new license to the Government and IP-Mobile could not find the finance) - congratulations!

Dr. Semmoto: You are completely correct. Softbank and we were fighting against each other for 15MHz in the 1.7GHz band. But the government had not decided the number of licensees initially, that means it was possible that only one company would win the whole 15MHz. As a result of the beauty contest, Softbank and we were both qualified and won 5MHz each, and the other 5MHz was reserved for additional allocation.

Question: One of the key issues for telecom operators is often said to be to "avoid becoming a dumb data pipe", i.e. to avoid commoditization and ever decreasing ARPU. What is your strategy that your company and your network does not become "a dumb pipe", a commodity?

Dr. Semmoto: We are confident in providing "a pipe". It is a pipe but a GREAT pipe, mobile broadband service, and it is what customers are willing to use. I believe other Japanese mobile carriers are "too intelligent", too far from real customer needs. High speed, flat-rate mobile broadband data is in itself a differentiated service. We will maintain competitiveness by continuously upgrading our data service from 3.5G to next generations (HSPA+ and LTE).

Question: Assuming an ARPU of YEN 5000 for 1 million subscribers we can calculate that eMobile has sales of about YEN 60 Billion for 2009, i.e. about US$ 600 Million. Is eMobile profitable now or if not, when do you expect eMobile to become profitable?

Dr. Semmoto: We expect to achieve 85 billion yen (about US$ 850 million) revenue with an accumulated subscriber number of approx. 1.4 million by the end of March 2009. eMobile has not turned to profit as of today. Under our projection we expect eMobile to break even on an annual EBITDA basis in fiscal year ending March 2010, then break even on net profit basis in fiscal year ending March 2011.

Question: Your investors will expect eMobile to show profits and growth. In which areas do you like eMobile to grow? Are you planning to bring your experiences in the world's most advanced market to other markets - international growth of eMobile? What is your long-term growth strategy for growth?

Dr. Semmoto: eMobile plans to acquire 5 million subscribers by March 2012, and assumes Japanese mobile penetration to grow to over 100%. In line with our corporate mission of "providing a new and more efficient broadband life for all", we focus on the Japanese mobile broadband market, which has more than 100 million subscribers. We consider that the whole broadband market will be the mobile broadband market in the future. As for further expansion into other markets, eMobile started a data card bundling service with the UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PC) in July 2008. UMPC is a type of PC that very much relies on internet connection. As we provide high-speed, reasonable-priced mobile internet connection environment, we have already built a win-win relationship with the PC market. Therefore, our strategy will always focus on mobile broadband. Meanwhile, we firmly believe that we will create a brand new potential market following the growth of PC and smart phone market. We do not have a plan to go to international markets for the moment.

Question: Many people think that Japan has the world's most advanced mobile phone market. Do you agree? And why do you think Japan could achieve this?

Dr. Semmoto: I dare say, NO. Mobile phone rates in Japan have not been declining regardless of rapid market growth for the past decade, due to lack of competition. ARPU has not been declining much for a decade before new licenses were permitted in 2005. After Softbank and EMOBILE's entry into the market for the first time after 1994, ARPU started to decline. The nominal undiscounted voice call charges of approx. 40YEN/min. are high and quite stable. Data speed was slow just before we started our business and, as I stated above, Japanese incumbent mobile carriers are emphasizing "value added services" too much. Penetration rate remains 80%, ranking as low as 50th globally.
Japanese mobile phone manufacturer lost their international market because Japan adopted non-standard technology, PDC, in 2G.
We need to introduce more competition, standard technology and "big-boned" telecommunication. When I say "big-boned" telecommunications, I don't mean additional "added value" services, but the essentials of telecommunications: connection and transmission with reasonable price and high speed.

Question: Many countries have decided to use one single radio technology path: GSM and in parallel 3GSM / UMTS. Japan and US on the other hand take the view today that the government should not pick technologies, and you find several competing radio technologies in Japan: wCDMA, CDMA2000, PHS, now soon Wimax. What do you think is better for a country: one single radio technology without competition, or a "technology shoot out" like in Japan, where companies compete in a pretty free market with different technologies?

Dr. Semmoto: Competition among technologies is not bad in itself, but the most important thing is that those technologies are worldwide standard and adopted by many operators. When Japan adopted an internationally isolated technology, like PDC for 2G mobile, its market would became "Galapagos Islands" (ie local Japanese products cannot be exported to other markets, and products from other markets cannot be imported, creating beautiful but dead-end product lines). In this sense, I doubt the future of CDMA2000, PHS and WiMAX because major worldwide operators are going to GSM/W-CDMA/LTE as the mainstream technology.

Question: for many years I have been puzzled by the fact that so many fantastic mobile services, handsets, i-Mode, mobile commerce have been developed in Japan, but there has been almost no success by Japanese companies (and foreign companies) to build a global business based on these technologies. For example, Japanese companies build fantastic mobile phones, but have no sales success outside Japan. If Japanese mobile phone makers would ask you how to succeed to sell Japanese made mobile phones outside Japan, or if DoCoMo would have asked you how to succeed with iMode outside Japan, what would your advice be for them?

Dr. Semmoto: The reason why Japanese mobile phone makers have no success outside Japan is simple. They were based on non-standard technology, PDC (which is Japan's 2G standard, which was not used in any other country outside Japan. Still today, more than 10 million PDC 2G mobile subscribers remain in Japan). DoCoMo's i-mode is also a closed business model. Both cases have "non-openness" in common. Broadband data service is more like "Internet" and needs open service, open business models and open technology.

Question: On the other hand, DoCoMo tightly controls most aspects of mobile phone handsets - which makes the production very expensive, and many handset producers have stopped making phones for DoCoMo: Mitsubishi, SONY-Ericsson have stopped, and SANYO sold the handset division to Kyocera. What do you think is the future of DoCoMo's model of controlling mobile phone specifications? And what is eMobile's handset strategy? Do you want to accept as many handsets as possible on your network, which seems to be SoftBank's strategy?

Dr. Semmoto: We emphasize standardized technology and open business models. It is not our strategy to control mobile phone specifications too much by committing the purchasing numbers, and by subsidizing developing and manufacturing costs because this would lead us to lose cost competitiveness. We are willing to adopt high-quality, worldwide standard and state-of-the-art handsets.

Question: What do you think about the current trends in mobile handsets?

Dr. Semmoto: Current trends in handsets are in two directions: simple phones and smart phones. Firstly, Japanese incumbent carriers have to change their strategy to place more emphasis on customer retention, therefore, the shipment of handset is decreasing in Japan. Both carriers and phone makers cannot support heavy product costs therefore the retail prices are increasing. Customers choose simple and easy-to-use handsets. Secondly, mobile broadband requires more open, multi-function handsets like smart phones.

Question: What do you think mobile communications markets will look like in 10 years from now? What is your vision for the industry?

Dr. Semmoto: the mobile market will become more data-focused, furthermore, broadband focused, which we already have experienced in the fixed telecommunication market (from narrowband data/voice to broadband internet). We will see through these mega trends and we will enforce our competitiveness in order to create brand new markets.

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Labels: docomo, emobile, sachio semmoto, vodafone, willcom

More in our J-ELECTRIC report: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/j_electric/

Labels: apple, docomo, KDDI, ntt, panasonic, sony

Second generation (2G) phones silently bowed out of Japan's market 8 months ago: the last 2G phones in Japan were shipped in December 2007. KDDI/AU switched off their 2G radio network in March this year, and both DoCoMo and SoftBank announced that they will switch off their slow and expensive 2G networks in the very near future (about 2009). Almost all other countries in the world either depend on legacy 2G networks only, or keep legacy 2G going while building out third generation in parallel. (Today's 3G HSDPA phones transmit data up to 250 times faster than 2G phones did on a good day).




The last 2nd generation (2G) phones shipped in Japan in December 2007. Almost all other countries keep legacy 2G networks running - Japan just switches them off. More in our JCOMM report.

Labels: 2g, 3g, docomo, hsdpa, hspda, Japan, KDDI, mobile phone, softbank

More in our J-COMM report: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/jcomm/

Labels: docomo, KDDI, ntt, softbank

Labels: docomo, e-mobile, KDDI, softbank

Google, Apple, Nokia, HTC, Vodafone and are winning the driver's seat of the global internet revolution. DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank essentially stay inside Japan for now - limiting their growth prospects and leaving global opportunities to others.




GOOGLE with Android and APPLE with iPhone are reaching for the driver's seat of the global mobile data revolution. Global companies including GOOGLE, Vodafone, Apple and NOKIA grow to US$ 100s Billion valuations, while local companies NTT, DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank remain essentially limited to Japan's market for now. Smartphone maker HTC increases impact - including in Japan.

Labels: apple, docomo, google, htc, iphone, KDDI, nokia, ntt, softbank

SoftBank from 4th to 1st position within less than 12 months... SoftBank's turn-round of x-Vodafone-Japan, went faster than many expected. Within less than 12 months SoftBank went from last place to first place in customer sign-ups, overtaking even KDDI's super-popular AU. Willcom recently suffers from SoftBank's revival, as well as from eMobile's flat rate data services.

Labels: docomo, Japan, KDDI, keitai, mobile phone, ntt, softbank, yahoo keitai

In the last few days NTT, NTT-DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank announced their first half financial results. SoftBank and KDDI are the winners both for market share and for profits, while DoCoMo's results and market shares are sinking, and pulling the NTT-Group down at this time. Extrapolation indicates that DoCoMo's net profits may fall into the red about one year from now, drastic action is taken soon.




The thin lines show linear interpolations of quarterly net profit data. Our extrapolation seems to indicate that DoCoMo's net profit might fall into the red towards then end of calender year 2008 unless drastic action is taken. If current trends continue, SoftBank's net profits might exceed DoCoMo's mid-2008. We expect DoCoMo to take dramatic action before this happens.

Labels: docomo, Japan, KDDI, mobile phone, ntt, number portability, softbank, yahoo keitai

Presentation at the Lunch meeting of the Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Japan (FCCJ) on March 16, 2007 at the Westin Hotel, Tokyo.

Find the summary and photos of the meeting here

Download the presentation here

From the Announcement:

In his presentation, Dr. Fasol will explain the essentials of Japan's mobile phone market, why and how it is so different to Europe's. He will also talk about some of the reasons why it is so difficult for European companies to succeed and uncover opportunities and the keys to success for European companies in this important market.

Labels: docomo, handy, Japan, KDDI, keitai, mobile phone, nokia, softbank

CLSA - Asia-Pacific Markets - last week organized the "CLSA Japan Forum" here in Tokyo. About 800-1000 investment bankers, portfolio managers, investors, analysts came together. Since last year interest of global investors in Japan has increased a lot.

Eurotechnology Japan KK participated actively, and on Friday March 2, 2007, gave a presentation on:

"Impact of mobile payment and the future of money"

The presentation covers the following agenda:
- Can e-money and mobile payment replace cash?
- Example: mobile payment for the world's busiest train line
- DoCoMo's target for mobile payments
- Japan's mobile payment and keitai credit landscape
- Free markets vs regulation
- Mifare and Felica chips and radio communications (NFC)
- Who drives mobile payments
- Growth of SUICA
- DoCoMo's mobile payment and keitai credit strategy
- Edy - electronic cash
- A major bank's mobile payment system
- Impact
- Where to invest - who to watch
- Summary

"Impact of mobile payment and the future of money" (download here)

"Mobile payment and keitai credit (download here)


  Slashdot It!

Labels: docomo, edy, felica, mobile payment, suica, walletphone

Japan's mobile subscriber numbers grew by about 5 million in 2006. Because of the much higher ARPU, Japan's mobile market again grew by a couple of Finlands during 2006. A growing number of people have more than one mobile phone, to take advantage of the best rates, eg for mail, voice and data. We expect growth to continue. Our analysis below shows that KDDI's and AU's gains are a lot larger than a superficial view of the statistics reveals - see our Figure below. Find a detailed review in the latest edition of our JCOMM-Report.




KDDI's subscriber gains during 2006 are much bigger than a superficial analysis reveals (see figure above):

KDDI's AU mobile service gained about 4.2 million new subscribers during 2006 - more than twice as many than DoCoMo's cellular service, which gained about 1.8 million new subscriptions.

Currently, KDDI is shutting down it's TuKa 2G service, and DoCoMo is shutting down it's PHS service. Both services together lost more than 2 million subscribers during 2006 - this is a much larger movement than due to number portability introduced on Oct 24, 2006.

KDDI offers both number portability and mobile email portability, and reports surprise that many former low-end TuKa users moved to top-end high-speed WIN (2.4 Mbps) data services.

For KDDI, enticing TuKa subscribers to move to high-end/high-speed AU services was an excellent preparation for number portability, and helped KDDI win in the first stage.

Labels: au, docomo, Japan, KDDI, mnp, mobile, mobile number portability, subscriber numbers, subscriptions, wireless

Mobile number portability created winners and losers in only two months - the main business challenge for Japanese operators is to avoid a price war.

KDDI is the clear winner in the first round, DoCoMo suffers a setback, and SoftBank did better than expected.

Today we released the 23rd edition of our JCOMM-Report - about 250 pages of overview and analysis of Japan's telecom sector.

KDDI gains 524,000 subscribers in Oct & Nov 2006. DoCoMo for the first time ever since it was founded experienced a net loss of subscriptions.




KDDI gains 600,000 new EZweb subscribers, Japanese operators earn much from mobile internet - subscription data show even better results for KDDI's EZweb.

Labels: docomo, KDDI, mnp, mobile number portability, softbank, subscriber numbers

Both i-Mode and EZweb top menu pages display Season Greetings and reflect Japan's seasonal mood: autumn sports days in schools, skiing in winter, Halloween and New Year.

Here are this year's New Year greetings for the Year of the boar on i-mode and EZweb which were displayed from January 1, 2007 for a few days during Japan's New Year vacation:





More about Japan's mobile internet:

DoCoMo and i-Mode
KDDI and EZweb
SoftBank and YAHOO-Keitai

Labels: docomo, ezweb, i-mode, imode, KDDI

The annual "Tokyo Game Show" sets trends and is a must for game professionals and fans. More than 100 companies exhibit.

This years highlight is the SONY "PlayStation Portable" - PSP - to be introduced towards the end of 2004. SONY prepared a huge arena with an gigantic models of a PSP hanging overhead where visitors to the show could try out advance models of the PSP.

SONY also displayed the new "Gran Turismo 4" game, the release is scheduled for Dec 3, 2004. "Gran Turismo 4" was not the only car racing game at the show, we counted at least three more in this hugely popular category.

The DoCoMo pavillion highlighted 15 of the most important i-Mode game partners. These 15 were selected from over 4000 i-mode content partners. Games are one of the most important sectors on the i-mode menu - many customers are driven by games to buy the next handset upgrade. Therefore DoCoMo has a great interest in mobile games. DoCoMos focus at the game show were games for the 900i FOMA/3G series.
Find out more in the picture series below and in our "Japan game industry" report.

SONY PSP - Playstation Portable:



In a stunning arena around a gigantic hyper-real model of the PSP PlayStation Portable (PSP), visitors try out the PSP. PSP is announced to be released towards the end of 2004.



SONY offered a preview of "Gran Turismo 4" representing the enormously popular segmet of car racing games with realistic landscapes and surroundings.



DoCoMo presented an intense show of 15 key i-mode partners focusing on games. The map immediately below shows the lay-out of DoCoMos exhibition area, together with small pictures of the main display of each of the 15 DoCoMo partners



One of the most important DoCoMo game partners is Square Enix with the best selling Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy is a "role playing game" where the player joins a group of fighters. This photograph shows the Square Enix presentation in the DoCoMo display. Square Enix also had its own presentation area - complete with models, preview area, shows etc.



"Rumble rose" is the most spectacular representative game of sexy games - Rumble Rose is about women wrestling...



ATLUS shows stunning color and illumination effects.

Labels: docomo, game boy, nintendo, psp, sony, tgs, tokyo game show

Every year the Wireless Japan sets global trends in wireless communications and mobile phones. Mobile phone industry professionals cannot afford to miss this trend setting show. It is here that Japanese carriers and handset makers introduce their latest products and show design studies and concept phones which set industry trends for the next months and years.

Highlights: "Beyond 3G"

Beyond 3G: SANYO 3.5G phone for 2.4Mbps data download (for KDDI/AU):






NEC "tag" wrapping multimedia design concept phone:






Matsushita/Panasonic "Beyond 3G" design concepts:



DoCoMo UbiButton and UbiChip:



DoCoMo i-Mode-FeliCa wallet phones - for electronic cash:



DoCoMo i-Mode-FeliCa wallet phones - as an electronic door key:

Labels: 3g, au, concept phones, docomo, foma, KDDI, softbank, vodafone, wireless japan 2004

Concept Phones

AU/KDDI Design Series Concept Phones "talby" design by Marc Newson, commercial introduction: December 2004












The following image shows the "talby" series introduced in December 2004. The commercially introduced models are almost the same as the concept models shown at Wireless Japan 2003, with a few small modifications (e.g. three navigation buttons were added to the design.)



SANYO presented a series of 3G phones and concept phones. Later (2007/2008), after a failed Sanoy-Nokia joint venture had been dissolved, SANYO sold the mobile phone division to Kyocera and ended mobile phone production.






JM-NET IP cell phone concept model















KDDI terrestrial digital TV concept model and demonstration:



SANYO 3G concept cell phones







DoCoMo 3G and FOMA









DoCoMo FOMA 3G cell phone F2102









DoCoMo FOMA 3G cell phone P2102 by Panasonic






DoCoMo FOMA 3G cell phone N2102 by NEC



DoCoMo/NEC lovely pink cell phone



DoCoMo airview: remote video control via FOMA 3G



Drinks machine with e-cash payment system and DoPa wireless network connection



GEOFREE waterproof cell phone



GEOFREE waterproof cell phone



DoCoMo "Jailor" remote operation of door locks via FOMA 3G



DoCoMo remote video via FOMA 3G



Linking VISA payment solutions to DoCoMo phones



DoCoMo FOMA 3G phones






DoCoMo network camera solution



DoCoMo Wristomo (combined wrist watch and PHS mobile phone)















Robots and mobile phones

Power shovel remote controlled via FOMA 3G cell phone












SONY Aibo robot dog remote controlled via FOMA 3G cell phone









Camera phones

FUJI imaging for mobile computing and mobile camera phones



Printing images taken by camera phones















Vodafone

In 2003 Vodafone participated in the Wireless Japan 2003 exhibition. Later Vodafone's business situation in Japan deteriorated considerably, and Vodafone did not participate in Japanese trade shows any longer, before selling operations to SoftBank in 2006.

Labels: 3g, au, concept phones, docomo, infobar, KDDI, vodafone live, wireless japan 2003